Team of the Week: Cheetahs dominate the votes
READERS’ VIEW: With all the votes in, players from the Cheetahs dominate the rugby365 readers’ Team of the Week for Round Five.
There were only two games over the weekend with Western Province beating Griquas 34-17 at Newlands and the Cheetahs thumping the Sharks 37-10 in Bloemfontein.
The Bulls and Lions game was postponed to Wednesday, January 6.
With the readers’ votes counted, the Cheetahs lead the way with nine players in the XV. Western Province have six players in the team, while the Griquas and the Sharks have no representation this week.
Cheetahs centre Frans Steyn was the biggest winner this week with 82 percent of the vote for the inside centre position.
The rest of the backline is a dominated by Steyn’s Cheetahs teammates with Clayton Blommetjies (fullback), William Small-Smith (wing), Rosko Specman (wing), Reinhardt Fortuin (flyhalf), Ruben de Haas (scrumhalf) all winning their positions.
WP’s Dan du Plessis (37.3 percent) edged the outside centre position from the Sharks’ Lukhanyo Am (33.6 percent).
In the pack, Jeandre Rudolph (Cheetahs) got 70.3 percent of the vote for the No.8 position. Oupa Mohoje (Cheetahs)and Jaco Coetzee (WP) make up the back row at No.7 and No.6, respectively.
JD Schickerling (WP) was the popular choice for No.5 lock with 60.9 percent of the vote and Cheetahs captain Carl Wegner got a whopping 78 percent of the vote for No.4 lock.
WP dominates the front row with Frans Malherbe getting 70 percent of the vote for the No.3 position. At hooker, Bongi Mbonambi dominated with 71.6 percent and Steven Kitshoff got 56 percent of the vote for loosehead prop.
Readers’ Team of the Week for Round Five: 15 Clayton Blommetjies (Cheetahs), 14 William Small-Smith (Cheetahs), 13 Dan du Plessis (WP), 12 Frans Steyn (Cheetahs), 11 Rosko Specman (Cheetahs), 10 Reinhardt Fortuin (Cheetahs), 9 Ruben de Haas (Cheetahs), 8 Jeandre Rudolph (Cheetahs), 7 Oupa Mohoje (Cheetahs), 6 Jaco Coetzee (WP), 5 JD Schickerling (WP), 4 Carl Wegner (Cheetahs), 3 Frans Malherbe (WP), 2 Bongi Mbonambi (WP), 1 Steven Kitshoff (WP).